Organisation - Setup Teams, Positions & Employees

Before proceeding to set-up the employees in your organisation, you need to look at your team structure. Teams are used to classify employees into specific groups to enable security around sets of documents, records or contacts. You need to consider what type of security your require and how you wish to have access to particular areas within the firm before setting up teams. Please consult your client manager if you need assistance in this area.


Teams Set-up

Go to File > Administration > Organisation > Teams

Click New to create a new team description or select an existing team and click Edit to edit a team description or Delete to delete a team description. 


If New or Edit is clicked, the Team Details dialog appears. Enter or change the description and/or password.

If you select to Delete a team that is in use, you will receive a message saying that the team is in use and deletion is prohibited.
 

Click Close when finished creating or editing teams.

**If you are the Owner of a Team you won't be prompted for a password when editing Team details and assigning Employees to Teams.


Position Types Set-up

Position Types are descriptions of the various positions in your organisation and can be assigned to the employees in your organisation. To set-up the Position Types go to  File > Administration > Position Types.


  • To create a new Position Type, click New. Then enter a new name and click OK.
  • To edit the description of an existing Position Type, select a Position Type and click Edit. Then edit the name and click OK. If the position type already exists you will not be able to change the description.
  • To delete an existing Position Type, select a Position Type and click Delete.


Employee Set-up

This dialog displays a sorted list of all Employees that have been entered into HowNow and allows new Employees to be added or existing Employees to be edited or deleted. To view the Employee Select dialog, select  File > Administration > Organisation > Employees.
The list can be filtered by typing part of a person’s name into the Find field. The various columns indicate whether each Employee is Active, Login Status, Administrator, Content Administrator, HR Administrator, Author, Content Reviewer, Partner, Manager or Record Reviewer. The Administrator and Author/Reviewer items refer to privileges (access rights) in HowNow.


Employee Actions

  • Add a new person, click New. Then see Employee Details.
  • To Edit an existing person, either double-click their row or select the row and click Edit. Then see Employee Details.

Login Actions

  • To Invite a user to access HowNow, select the Employee in the list and click Invite, review the employee information and click Send Invite.  

Service Accounts
If the user being set up is to allow for an integration/authorisation with another product, you can tick the box to invite as a Service Account. This will allow these details to used as an authorisation between HowNow's backend services and another third party product, without taking up one of your HowNow licenses. If this option is ticked, the user will not be able to log in to HowNow. Each HowNow firm can have up to 3 active service account type users.


  • An Employee's details can only be updated by the Administrator until the Invite has been accepted. From then, only the new Employee can update their details.
  • To Disable a person, select the row and click the Disable User button. 
  • To Invite All Employees (who have not previously been invited), click Invite All Outstanding - the system will warn if any employees do not have sufficient details to enable the invite to be sent.

Print Options

  • Choose Export to Excel to export a list of employees to Excel - you will be asked to provide a file name for the report and optionally open the report on save.
  • Choose Print Preview to see a list of employees on screen - the report can be saved or printed from this option.


Employee Details

 

The details area displays the set-up details for all employees.

  • First Names: Enter the employee's first name. Note: If yours is a large organisation, also enter the employee's middle initial(s) or middle name(s). This is only needed to differentiate between employees in your organisation.
  • Last Name: Enter the employee's last name.
  • Initials: HowNow automatically enters the initials but these may be edited.
  • Email: Enter the employee's email address.
  • Employee Status: This informs if the employee has had their login verified.
  • Passwords can only be reset by the Employee themselves


Profile 

The Profile section contains each employee's personal information.

  • Address: Enter the employee's address if required. This information is used to address letters that may be sent to the employee. 
  • Phone: Mobile/Work/Home: Enter the employee's phone details.
  • Email: Enter the employee's work email address. Note: this address is required if a document or record is emailed.
  • Birthday: Enter the employee's date of birth. 
  • Start Date: Use this field to record the person’s start date. 
  • Qualifications: Use this field to record the employee's qualifications


Privileges The Privileges area displays the various settings that control this employee's access to HowNow. Select those items that apply to each employee. After understanding all the various privileges that are available, it is important to create a map of each employee's level of responsibility before setting up this area.

System - Administration

  • The HowNow Administrator is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of HowNow within your organisation and has access to all areas of HowNow. HowNow Administrators are automatically assigned as HR and Content Administrators.
  • The HR Administrator is a special type of HowNow Administrator who can only administer the HR functions of Employees, Position Types and Teams. This is only available where the employee is not the overall administrator. 
  • The Content Administrator is a special type of HowNow Administrator who is equivalent to an Author but who can also make documents current.
  • The Software Updater is the person responsible for administering software updates. There needs to be at least one Software Updater. If a software updater leaves the organisation, another employee needs to be appointed to this role. System settings can also be applied in >Options >Updates.

System - Roles

  • Select Partner if this person is a partner or director of the organisation.
  • Select Manager if this person is a manager.
  • Select Record Reviewer if this person is a reviewer of records.
  • Select Signatory if this person signs letters and other documents.

Knowledge 

  • The Content Updater is the person responsible for downloading and administering content updates. Note: The content updater does not have to be an administrator and there can be only be one content updater. 
  • A Content Author is able to add and edit knowledge documents in HowNow. You can set up multiple Content Authors.
  • A Content Reviewer is a person responsible for reviewing new and updated HowNow content within your organisation. You can set up multiple Content Reviewers within HowNow. A Reviewer can edit, but not add, knowledge documents to HowNow.

Records 

  • Select Can access Records tab for all employees who will be saving and accessing records (this is checked by default).
  • Select Can Profile Select to allow this person to edit multiple record profiles even though they are not an administrator.
  • Select Can Edit Record Profiles to allow this person to edit record profiles even though they are not an administrator.
  • Select Can Un-finalise Records if this person is allowed to change the Final status on records. Note: If the employee has system privileges of HowNow Administrator, Partner, Manager, Record Reviewer or Signatory they will still be able to un-finalise records without this option selected.
  • Select Can Import Records to allow this person to import records. This setting controls the Records > Import menu.
  • Select Show Change Status Dialog on Record Close to display the Record Change Status Dialog each time this person closes a non-final record. As part of this function, you can select on which record statuses the prompt is required.

Contacts 

  • Select Can Add Contacts to allow this person to add contacts to the contacts database.
  • Select Can Edit Contacts to allow this person to edit contact details.
  • Select Can Repair Contacts to allow this person to run repairs on contacts.
  • The Contact Data Updater can refresh the linked contact data at any time. There can be more than one Contact Data Updater.

Workflow (Optional Module)

  • Select Can Access the Job Tab to allow this perform to see the Jobs Tab.
  • Select Can Create Job if this person is permitted to create new jobs.
  • Select Can Start Inactive Tasks to allow the perform to starts tasks.
  • Choose from the following options:
    • Start at the Job Selection Field - for all records saved, the system will default to the job selection field.
    • Don't Start at the Job Selection Field - this will bypass the job selection field when saving a record.
    • Force the Job Selection Field - this will force the job selection field to be completed for all new records.
    • Don't Show the Job Selection Field - this will remove the job selection field from the record profiling wizard.


Settings 

This area contains additional settings that relate to the employee.

Application Settings - Screen Options

  • Open HowNow full screen: Select this checkbox if the user wishes to have HowNow display full screen (i.e. maximised) when they first open HowNow. Leave this checkbox unselected if they prefer to have the HowNow application cover only part of the screen when they first login.
  • Minimise HowNow to the System Tray: When ticked this adds a HowNow Icon to the System Tray and when the main HowNow window is minimised it is removed from the taskbar and minimised to the tray.  To restore HowNow simply click on the HowNow icon in the System Tray.
  • Open HowNow on tab: Choose the tab that the user wishes to be selected when opening HowNow. Choose from Last Opened, Knowledge, Records, Contacts, Tasks.
  • Reset Display Settings to Default: This option resets all the settings back to the HowNow default. 

Application Settings - Bookmark Options

  • Use Outlook for Email Bookmarks: this is used by Outlook Security Manager when connecting to Outlook for email bookmarks - this removes the Outlook security prompt "Allow or Deny".

User Defaults - Default Dates - can be overridden by System Settings in >Options

  • Date Range: Sets the default date range on the Records Tab, provided the System Options has been set to allow users to select their own default. The options range from Today to Last 5 Years. 
  • Date Type: This is the method by which the date range is selected - choose from Added, Created, Modified or Finalised.

User Defaults - Authentication Defaults - Logout Behaviour (where User Select has been chosen in System Options)

  • Automatic logs you out so you will need to login again next time you go to HowNow.
  • Manual gives you the option to stay logged in.

User Defaults - Default Employee Roles

  • Default Partner, Manager and Reviewer: Values selected here are used as the defaults whenever a partner, manager or reviewer is requested. 

User Defaults - Treeview Expansion

  • Knowledge Filter Level: Sets the level to which HowNow initially displays the left-hand filter panel items. A lower number shows less detail; a higher number shows more detail.
  • Record Location Level: Sets the level to which HowNow initially displays record locations on various dialogs.  A lower number shows less detail; a higher number shows more detail.


User Defaults - Folder Options

  • Enable Folder Monitoring: Enables monitoring of a selected folder for new documents or records. This option is only available if folder monitoring is enabled in System Options.
  • Folder to Monitor: Allows the user to choose which folder on their system they would like HowNow to monitor when using the Monitor a Folder function. 

Teams 

This area allows teams to be assigned to the employee. To add the employee to one or more teams, check or uncheck the appropriate teams. Attaching a person to one or more teams will restrict their document and record visibility to only those documents or records attached to the team or teams they belong to.


Positions

Assign a position to an employee by double clicking to select the position. This position will be used when creating merge letters.


Toolbar Applications

The Toolbar Applications tab is an optional function that allows each employee to populate the HowNow toolbar with their own applications. For example, you can place an icon on the HowNow toolbar that starts your accounting system. The Toolbar Applications tab can be completed either by each user or the administrator. For information on setting up applications to be used on the toolbar, see Toolbar Applications.



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